Social Justice Aotearoa CEO Jackie Foster has responded to Corrections Association of New Zealand president Floyd Du Plessis comments that the staffing levels at Corrections are at a dangerously critical level.

“We at Social Justice Aotearoa are being contacted weekly by families of inmates with terrible stories ranging from 24-hour lock downs, to property being lost during a transfer, which are also a breach of basic human rights and can lead to greater issues exploding within prisons,” Jackie Foster said.

“All of this we are told, is a direct result of desperately low staffing levels.

“It is of great concern when the Minister of Corrections will not acknowledge that there is a staffing crisis in prisons when clearly the figures show us that to run Corrections effectively, there would need to be a minimum of 4,000 staff members.

“Currently they only have only 3000. So, if that isn’t a crisis, I would like to see what Minister Kelvin Davis would call a crisis?

“Social Justice Aotearoa will support Corrections in any way we can, and we truly hope that until this crisis is over, inmates and staff, as a basic minimum, are safe,” Jackie Foster said.

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